assafelovic/gpt-researcher · error · UnsafeURLError

Host {host!r} resolved to an invalid address {ip_str!r}.

Error message

Host {host!r} resolved to an invalid address {ip_str!r}.

What it means

Raised when DNS returns an address string for the host that Python's ipaddress module cannot parse into an IP object. This is a defensive guard in validate_url's SSRF check loop; it almost never fires because getaddrinfo normally returns valid addresses.

Source

Thrown at gpt_researcher/utils/url_security.py:107

    if not host:
        raise UnsafeURLError("URL must include a valid host.")

    if allow_private is None:
        allow_private = _private_urls_allowed()
    if allow_private:
        return url

    try:
        addrinfo = socket.getaddrinfo(host, None)
    except socket.gaierror as exc:
        raise UnsafeURLError(f"Could not resolve host {host!r}: {exc}") from exc

    for info in addrinfo:
        ip_str = info[4][0]
        try:
            ip = ipaddress.ip_address(ip_str)
        except ValueError as exc:
            raise UnsafeURLError(
                f"Host {host!r} resolved to an invalid address {ip_str!r}."
            ) from exc
        if _is_disallowed_ip(ip):
            raise UnsafeURLError(
                f"URL host {host!r} resolves to a non-public address ({ip_str}); "
                "set ALLOW_PRIVATE_URLS=true to allow internal targets."
            )

    return url


def is_safe_url(url: str, *, allow_private: bool | None = None) -> bool:
    """Return ``True`` if ``url`` passes :func:`validate_url`, else ``False``."""
    try:
        validate_url(url, allow_private=allow_private)
        return True
    except UnsafeURLError:
        return False

View on GitHub (pinned to 6f998577d5)

Solutions

1. If mocking getaddrinfo in tests, return realistic tuples: (socket.AF_INET, None, None, '', ('93.184.216.34', 0)).
2. Check the host with 'socket.getaddrinfo(host, None)' in a REPL to inspect what your resolver returns; fix local DNS/hosts-file entries.
3. Report upstream if it occurs without mocking, including resolver output and OS.

Example fix

# before (test mock causes the error)
mock_getaddrinfo.return_value = [(None, None, None, '', ('bogus', 0))]
# after
mock_getaddrinfo.return_value = [(socket.AF_INET, None, None, '', ('93.184.216.34', 0))]

import socket, ipaddress

def resolves_to_valid_ips(host: str) -> bool:
    try:
        return all(
            (lambda s: (ipaddress.ip_address(s), True)[1])(i[4][0])
            for i in socket.getaddrinfo(host, None)
        )
    except (socket.gaierror, ValueError):
        return False

from gpt_researcher.utils.url_security import UnsafeURLError
try:
    validate_url(url)
except UnsafeURLError as e:
    if "invalid address" in str(e):
        logger.error("resolver returned unparseable address for %s; check DNS/mock", url)
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: socket.getaddrinfo returns a sockaddr whose first element is not a parseable IP (e.g. unusual resolver output, a hostname embedded instead of an address, or a mocked getaddrinfo in tests returning garbage).

Common situations: Unit tests that patch socket.getaddrinfo with tuples like (None, None, None, '', ('not-an-ip', 0)); exotic resolvers or OS-level DNS interception returning non-standard results.

Related errors

• Could not resolve host {host!r}: {exc}
• URL must include a valid host.
• URL host {host!r} resolves to a non-public address ({ip_str}
• Cost must be an integer or float
• Embedding provider not found.

AI-assisted analysis of assafelovic/gpt-researcher@6f998577d5 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f8c51b3d9efd572f. Report an issue: GitHub.